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Why are the Darcys playing the high school circuit?

Wes Marskell, drummer for local indie band the Darcys, is the first to concede he wasn’t an ideal pupil in high school and, on this particular Friday afternoon at his old Etobicoke alma mater, Richview Collegiate, there’s evidence to support his claim: the band teacher he tormented 10 years ago has not brought her class to a Darcys concert in the high-school auditorium.

It’s a peculiar situation, to say the least, since the Darcys have spent the past couple of weeks crusading on behalf of music education with their newly launched “Play in School” campaign, an initiative that’s seen the acclaimed Toronto quartet offering a half-dozen free shows and accompanying workshops and meet-and-greet sessions at high schools in and around the GTA.

They wrap up Play in School’s successful test run with a sixth and final date at Huron Heights Secondary School in Newmarket on Monday, before embarking on a short European tour, but 10 more schools have already signed on for their own Darcys dates in the new year, with more to come. It’s a pity some unlucky band students at Richview missed out on the fun.

“I didn’t do the best here, and I think part of that was just my attitude and who I was and what my extracurricular activities were. I was coming in a little bit spaced out, I think,” laughs Marskell.

The kids at Richview were pretty wound up to have the Darcys in house, however, not least because Marskell and vocalist/guitarist Jason Couse were treading the same high-school halls not that long ago. But kids below the drinking age also don’t get a lot of opportunities to see indie-rock shows, which was the Darcys’ other motivation for launching Play in School. They get emails and Facebook messages and tweets from young fans all the time lamenting the fact that there aren’t enough all-ages shows.

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“It’s been really well received,” says Marskell. “I guess part of it is kids are happy to get out of class, but kids can’t really see bands play. It’s hard to sneak into a show. I had to sneak into the Constantines at the Phoenix when I was in high school.”

The Darcys were moved to create the Play in School operation when the Toronto District School Board proposed cutting all instrumental music programs last year in the face of dire budget constraints.

Those cuts never happened, but Marskell and Couse are well aware that music classes are always an easy target during times of cost-cutting, so their hope is that they can rally the kids with a little rock ’n’ roll to — as Marskell has previously put it in print — “hold their school boards accountable to maintain and develop music programs.”

The Darcys, who are rising stars on the Arts & Crafts label after several years of diligent DIY slogging and canny self-marketing tactics — they gave two of their albums away free before finally going the traditional route with this year’s Warring — also aspire to lead by example and inspire young musicians and creative types in general to do things their own way.

“What we’re trying to say is we’ve carved out our own niche and we’ve done it creatively and with a lot of integrity,” says Marskell. “We’re not in the business of selling out our beliefs so that we can make pop records, and I think it’s a great thing for kids to know that there’s still room to do that sort of thing and not have to write the next Lady Gaga song or something. There’s a lot of room for them to be creative and make money. I mean, we’re going to Switzerland next week and we put out a free record.”

In the future, says Couse, the Darcys hope to “make the best of the spare time that we have as we’re touring across Canada” to visit schools all over the country. They’re thrilled at the response so far.

“The kids seem really engaged and I think that’s the important thing because I remember not being the most engaged as a student all the time,” says Couse.

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“It’s great because now you get a lot of the kids sending tweets like, ‘They’re playing at your school? Why aren’t they playing at my school?’” adds Marskell. “Two days later, that principal is emailing our manager saying, ‘Do you want to come to our school?’

“Hopefully they’re not just seeing this as a way to get out of biology.”

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